those dispositions which he thought necessary for securing his
dominions to his child. He then insisted upon his physicians informing
him how long he had to live, and being told that his life could not
last much more than two hours, he prepared to meet death with the same
courage which he had evinced during life. After going through all the
ceremonial duties of the Catholic religion, he commanded some
particular psalms to be sung in his chamber, and died very nearly the
time his physicians had predicted.

Henry V. was a great conqueror, and a wise, prudent, and politic
prince. His two greatest faults seem to have been ambition and
cruelty; the first was an inheritance, and the second, perhaps, was
less an effect of a harsh nature than of hasty passion. We seldom find
that he committed any deliberate act of barbarity, and those things
which most stain his name were generally done under feelings of great
irritation. His conduct to the Earl of March, the heir of Richard II.,
and the respect he paid to the memory of that unhappy king himself,
are proofs of a generous nature; and of all his conquests, the
greatest he ever achieved was the first--that over himself.

JOHN HUNIADES[16]

By PROFESSOR A. VAMBERY

(1388-1456)

[Footnote 16: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

[Illustration: John Huniades. [TN]]

Of his grandfather we do not know even the name; his father was a
Wallach, a common soldier; yet he himself was the greatest of
Hungarian heroes, the Grand Marshal, and later on the "Governor" or
Regent of Hungary; and his son king of that country. At the present
day, in the age of democracy, such rapid elevation is no such rare
phenomenon, but in the aristocratic middle ages it was really a
miracle, one that points to exceptional circumstances and an
exceptional man.

In Europe at that time the circumstances were indeed exceptional. A
new power pulsating with youthful life had arrived from somewhere in
the interior of Asia with the intention of conquering the world. This
power was the Turk--not merely a single nation, but a whole group of
peoples clustered round a nation, inspired by one single idea which
urged them ever forward. "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the
Apostle of God."

The Mohammedan flood already beat upon the bounds of Catholic
Christendom, in the forefront of which stood Hungary. Hungary's king,
Sigismund, was able for a moment in 1396 to unite the nations of
Europe